Sunday, April 22, 2012

WASHINGTON TIMES Interview: M. Akyol on Fethullah Gulen

Luke Montgomery interviews Mustafa Akyol about his new book "Islam without extremes - A Muslim Case for Liberty" . It seems many Western media outlets seem stuck, like a broken record, on Fethullah Gulen's so-called involvement in journalists' arrest. Mustafa Akyol is a seasoned and experienced analyst and commentator on Turkish issues. More info on Mustafa Akyol can be found here

Luke Montgomery: Last year, Turkish journalist Ahmet Şık wrote a book
entitled You
Touch, You Burn (Dokunan Yanar) targeting the
Gülen movement. Before the book was even published, he was arrested and
thrown in jail. What happened to moderate and tolerant Islam in this
case?

Mustafa Akyol: First, I have opposed the arrest of Ahmet Şık and similar
journalists from the very beginning. I’m so glad that they are free now after
being imprisoned for a year. This incident shows that the Turkish legal
system is still very authoritarian and illiberal when it comes to freedom of
speech.

But, I would not go as far as to say that this illiberal episode
in the Turkish legal system is a product of Islam. I don’t think it has any
direct connection with the Turkish understanding of Islam. It was not the
Islamic law or any Islamic interpretation which led to the arrest of those
journalists. It was Turkey's
illiberal anti-terrorism laws which define a terrorist organization very
vaguely.

These journalists were accused of being in an organization with
some radical generals who wanted to conduct a coup. Now, I think that
accusation was overblown, but at the end of the day that was the reason they
were arrested. Yes, they had criticized the Gülen movement, but I don't think
that was the reason
they were arrested.

There
are other journalists, very secular journalists who have denounced Fethullah
Gülen and his movement, defined him as a CIA agent or a secret Christian, all
sorts of things, but they have never been imprisoned. (highlights by RF blog)